Split EP (Accident Prone)

Album Reviews
[DARKWAVE] If Vice Device has any musical vice, it’s
dissonance. The dark synth-pop group employs it as much as any Neue
Deutsche Welle-loving band should. The real energy on “Fractured
Desi
More

A Friend in the World (Badman)

Album Reviews
[SYNTH-POP CONFESSIONALS] By the time Portland discovered
Lovers, singer-songwriter Carolyn Berk had already begun shedding the
“female Conor Oberst” tag that dogged her early days as a teenag
More

Imperium (Captured Tracks)

Album Reviews
[EMBER POP] Despite trading in its synthesizers for guitars, on new record Imperium,
Blouse still sounds like an ’80s-adoring pop outfit, albeit one from
the tail end of the New Wave era, whose
More

Devil May Care (Fast Weapons)

Album Reviews
[SOUL PUNK] Magic Mouth frontman Stephfon Bartee blasts off this four-song EP with a shout of, “Ain’t you got no shame?!” and the answer to that is embedded in the quaking, rockabilly-ish rave-u
More

Drifter’s Temple (Thrill Jockey)

Album Reviews
Guitarist Dewey Mahood’s departure
from Eternal Tapestry, the free-range psych band of which he was a
member for a decade, happened quietly. There were no big blowups, no
residual ill will. Un
More

Loveless: Hurts To Love (Fluff & Gravy)

Album Reviews
[COWBOY BOOTGAZE] A great cover album not only pays homage
to a beloved musician but reimagines the music itself. And while
there’s little new about covering My Bloody Valentine, Portland’s Ke
More

You Have My Word (Friendship)

Album Reviews
[RETRO ROCK] Everything you need to know about Street
Nights’ style is thrust in your ears within the first five seconds of
“Hong Kong,” the opener of the vinyl-only You Have My Word.
Guit
More

White Lighter (Roll Call)

Album Reviews
[ORCHESTRAL POP] Well, Portland, hopefully you didn’t
expect Typhoon to stay yours forever. A band built like a junior
orchestra clearly has ambitions no basement could contain for long. With
More

Warp & Weft (Raven Marching Band)

Album Reviews
[REFINED COUNTRY] A thread of kinship runs through Laura Veirs’ ninth studio album. Produced by husband Tucker Martine, Warp & Weft
explores the joy and stress of being a parent, to the tune o
More